Category Archives: Career

Old school ties

August 12, 2015 6:50 AM , 2 Comments ,

Every once in a while someone will send in a resume through our sales inquiry form or they’ll call the main line and ask if we’re hiring.  I suppose when you’re looking for work you need to try every approach and take any opportunity to ask.

Once in a really long time I will get a professor from my old school contact me about a protegé that needs work experience or some recent grad will look through the former student rolls and randomly call people and push the “old school ties” to see if they can land a job.

“A” for effort but that’s not going to work with me.  I suppose it may have been possible at one time that going to a particular university may have insured you landing a good job no matter what your qualifications may have been.  I’ve personally never met anyone who claimed this dubious honor.  I know I wouldn’t brag about it if I had landed a job like that.

Nowadays I really can’t see this happening anymore.  Employees are investments as well as resources.

An employer will spend a significant amount of money recruiting, paying a salary to, setting up benefits for, and providing training for a new hire.  In small companies every employee is crucial to the success of the business. Many times employees in small companies have to take on a wide variety of different jobs and there really isn’t room for such favoritism based on something so arbitrary as having the same university in common.

You need people who can do not just the work assigned to them but be flexible enough to take on other responsibilities as well.

If I see a resume from a fellow former student (There is no such thing as an Aggie alumni) I will wish them luck.  I will reminisce with them about the school.  I will acknowledge that they went to a good university.  I know that they are willing to work hard.  But that’s all I know.  I can’t draw any other inferences from the university that they attended.  I don’t know anything about their ability to think or how they work with other people or what their particular strengths or weaknesses are.

Old school ties belong at reunions, they belong at tailgate parties for football games in the fall, they belong on maroon t-shirts but they definitely don’t belong in the job interview process.

Posted in: business, career, relationships, school, work

Getting out there

July 11, 2015 6:33 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I was chatting about work and life the other day over tea at Starbucks.  The conversation drifted in the direction of business networking.  Not the computer kind of network but the personal type of network.  The type that’s hard for me.

Networking really hasn’t changed at all since the first business office was set up.  Having a wide circle of friends and acquaintances always pays off.  Although we may live in an interconnected world of instantaneous communications we still have to initiate contact with other people in order for it to work.

I don’t mean just send emails back and forth or maybe even have a phone conversation but actually “talk” to the other person.  Whether that person is a client, a colleague or even a competitor at another company.  Being more than just a contact card in an email directory is important.  It means that you’re an actual human being that the other person might think of when it comes time to ask for a job, a business opportunity or an introduction to someone else.

Initiating contact doesn’t have to be a big production involving flowers or lunch or whatever.  You can just initiate contact by asking the other person how they’re doing during the course of your regular work exchange.  Do some “industry gossip”.  Talk about that other third company that has nothing to do with you or speculate on the future of your field.  Ask about their goals and plans.

The main thing is that you become a known quantity, that you have a personality, and that you’re a factor in their life.  Not a giant factor but a factor.  You’ll never expect them to break down and cry on your shoulder and you should not expect them to lend you money but at the very least if things go bad you can send out resumes to them, you can ask them if they know about any open bids, you can query them about some job applicant that they may know.

This is the way that the business world works, folks.  It always has and always will be this way.

Posted in: business, career, friends, goals, jobs, opportunities, plans, relationships, social networks, standards and practices, work

Comparisons and contrasts

February 3, 2015 6:40 AM , Leave a Comment ,

So there I am sitting on a bench waiting for my turn and feeling somewhat nervous.  Waiting for what? For indoor skydiving.  I know I’m not jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet and that it’s totally safe but still…

 

As it turned out it was quite a lot of fun.  It’s just one of several new things that I’ve tried in the last year and that I will try in the coming year. I am trying to stretch out to try several new things (rock climbing and free running are next on the agenda) and so far they’ve all been quite exciting and fun.

During my vacation I tried out several new things including surfing (I would need 6 months of continuous practice to become an adequate surfer), ATV driving (somewhat terrifying) zip lines (fairly fun).

 

The Author, hanging on for dear life.

The Author, hanging on for dear life.

One thing I noticed during my zip line experience was how the zip line trainers were so at home in the trees that they were nonchalant and self-confident hooking themselves up to the lines and would fling themselves out into empty space without a second thought.  I suppose it’s due to the fact that they’ve done this so much that they’re accustomed to it now and they’ve lost all the reticence that first timers like me have.

I noticed the same attitude with the sky diving instructors.  They all had more than 5 years experience with the wind tunnel and with actual sky diving so that they could now just meander around the wind tunnel effortlessly and launch themselves up and down with just a slight shift of their body position.

On the drive home I started thinking about them and the zip line guys.  Basically they were doing the same job, providing safe thrills for tourists while doing something that they really loved.

I then started thinking about one of Leslie Farnsworth’s blogs about rat races not just here but in other countries.  One group of guys working in an ultra modern indoor wind tunnel, the other group working on a tropical paradise among the trees.  Who’s to say which group is luckier or has the better job.

The main thing though is that both groups get to do something fun, they get to meet a lot of interesting people while doing it, and of course they’re able to make a living doing it.

I think that’s the key thing that most people are looking for in a job or a career.  No matter where you live or what you do for a living you want to be able to do something that you will enjoy.

When you find that career or job that you like then the location really doesn’t matter as much.  The working experience more than makes up for any differences in salary or where the job is located.  Your working day becomes something to look forward to rather than a chore.

Sometimes when I’m working away and it’s a particularly rough week I have to step back and think about the times when work is a joy and when things were going well and remind myself why I got into this line of work in the first place.

 

Posted in: activities, career, jobs, life in general, thought

experience

January 28, 2015 6:44 AM , Leave a Comment ,

You know how it is.

You get out of college and you know it all. Those geezers that hired you? They don’t know anything.  They’re fossils, and ungrateful fossils at that because they pay you next to nothing and you “know” that you’re worth so much more. So you sit in front of your monitor try to do as little as possible and try to make it to Friday.  Friday night when your real life begins.

Flash forward 20 years, and you have a 20 something asking you how to send a fax, or how to fill out their weekly time sheet.

“Does this look right?”

“What am I supposed to do for this?”

“When do I qualify for vacation time?”

All those inane and ridiculous questions that you’ve conveniently forgotten that you once asked when you were their age.  Every day, and it just keeps getting worse and worse.

When did I become the “old man”? The one that people come to with questions, the one that people needed an opinion from, the one who is an authority on so many topics?

I suddenly look down.  I’m wearing a button down shirt, pressed pants, hard sided shoes, and to top it all off I shaved. I’ve become one of “them”!

When I was starting out I did my job, I tried sneaking out early or sneaking in late. Now I have to ask them why they came in late and are they working late to make up for it, and I need them to do it cause we have a lot to do, and they need to be here.

Funny thing is that I try to look calm, thoughtful, and wise. On the inside I’m panicking, confused and dazed. I wonder if it was like that for the old men when they were my age.  Has it been the same thing for every generation of office worker since this whole lifestyle began back in the 19th century?  Will it continue to be this way in the future?  Is that good or bad?

Time for me to go and pretend I know what I’m talking about…

Posted in: activities, business, career, life in general

performance reviews

November 13, 2014 6:44 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Anyone that’s worked in an office for a boss has had to go through one of these at some point.

In small companies it’s usually a one on one informal and unannounced get together.  Basically the boss stops by your desk and asks “how are things going?” and gets to the point in a roundabout way.  One thing you should know about your boss is that they rarely do something without a reason.

In larger offices of course it’s a more organized and formal affair.  You might have to talk to your immediate boss or an HR person or maybe you even have a peer review system in place and discuss matters with your co-workers.  So it might be useful to know what a performance review is and what it is not supposed to be.

So what’s the point of a performance review? it’ basically the opportunity for those that you work with or work for to let you know how you’ve been doing at your job. We all like to think that we’re doing things the best way possible and that we don’t have any flaws in our work habits.  But even the best and most conscientious of workers has a lapse from time to time.  In other cases, such as when you’re just starting out, your boss or your co-workers can share with you their accumulated wisdom and may be able to improve your workflow or make things easier for you.

So what is a performance review not supposed to be?  It’s not a beat down session where people take free shots at you.  Sometimes it’s hard to hear that you’re not perfect or that you could be doing things in a better way.  Sometimes when you’re starting out in your career a performance review seems like everyone is ganging up on you and trying to pick on the least little flaw.  That’s not what business is about.  Remember you and everyone there at the company is there to make money for the company.  Personality issues are not conducive to that end.

Take this as the opportunity not only to learn from any flaws or mistakes in your work rhythm but also to think about how you fit into the general scheme of the company.  Is the way that they do things comfortable for you?  Is it totally bizarre, alien, and not at all your way of working?  They’re basically telling you what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to do it.  Think about all of this and take this opportunity to decide whether you want to continue on at this company.

The performance review should be an opportunity for you not a dreaded event.

Posted in: business, career, work

but the forest IS made of trees!

July 20, 2014 6:52 AM , Leave a Comment ,

“All politics is local”

“You don’t see the big picture”

“Won the battle but lost the war”

All phrases meant to explain our disconnect from viewing situations without respect to scale.  To one degree or another we are all guilty of this at some point in our lives.  We sometimes obsess so much on a particular detail or we look at the overall picture and forget to address  particular details and suddenly everything goes wrong.

Some examples?

Back when I used to be in production I would sometimes become so obsessed with some part of a map.  I would go over and over and over it so many times that I would lose track of time and suddenly I would find myself behind schedule.

And of course the opposite is also true.  You can create the best possible product and do your utmost to create something fantastic and suddenly one little hiccup and one little wrong or missing detail destroys days, weeks, or even months of precious work.

So how to balance this out?  I don’t think it’s so much  matter of striking a balance between being detail oriented and being aware of the broader perspective.  Neither of these is really a negative quality to have in your work.  Being detailed oriented makes your work precise and comprehensive.  Having a broader perspective let’s you keep an eye on what you are trying to accomplish.

Rather, I think it’s a matter of doing both but adding a third dimension to your work.  An independent arbiter in your mind that will look at the project objectively and step in when needed to make the necessary adjustments.  Quality control is often derided as a fussy and unproductive part of the work cycle and it is never appreciated until it’s missing in the final product.

A good dose of quality control will be an important facet of your work in the long run and give you a reputation among your peers as someone who can handle highly complex projects on time and with an eye for meticulous detail.

 

 

Posted in: business, career, work

interesting times

June 16, 2014 6:34 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Last year I was interviewed over the phone for a piece in The Atlantic magazine.  The topic of this unexpected interview was a new company called Skybox.  They had a plan to place into orbit a string of low-cost observation satellites all around the world and to provide almost continuous image coverage over all the major cities of the world.

I should probably first explain that I have been in the remote sensing industry for the past 20 years.  I have been around since the time that 9-track tapes were state of the art and from the time that satellite images were being delivered as film negatives.  My career has taken place as the industry as a whole has seen ups and downs and has been rocked by takeovers and acquisitions.  One company that I have worked with has been taken over and renamed 4 times during my career.  So I’m not exactly  newcomer to this field.

People in business and government as well as private individuals have dreamed of or dreaded the idea of having a satellite overhead watching your every move for decades.  However it has been a fantasy for most of this time.  The technical hurdles were and to some degree still are quite daunting.  Satellites have to be in low orbit to get the level of detail you want but that means that they don’t stay overhead all the time.  This means that they can’t be watching your every move all the time.  You would need several satellite working together to do something like that.

But what really trips up this concept is the lack of ready capital.  Satellites have been the cutting edge of technical innovation for decades.  Components were custom-made for just one satellite and made to fine tolerances.  Entire new disciplines and programming languages had to be developed to make satellites work.  This of course required extremely well-educated and capable engineers and scientists to work with expensive production processes and as a consequence trying to put up a satellite usually depended on having a major corporation or often a large government to foot the bills.

Just the act up putting a satellite, really putting anything into orbit, was and still is extremely high.  On average it is about $10,000 per pound.  Normal observation satellites weigh tons.  Rockets can and do blow up, a tiny circuit can fail and render your satellite useless, a bit of space junk can crash into it.  The task of getting permission to launch something into orbit from a government is difficult in and of itself.  Overall it’s no easy or cheap task.

Skybox did a couple of clever things.  Borrowing from the NASA FBC (faster, better, cheaper) concept of the early 1990s, they created systems that were cheaper than the norm.  By using off the shelf technology and cutting down on many components that would be normally found on satellites they have designed a satellite that is around 100 kilograms and is the size of a small refrigerator.  A normal satellite would weigh tons and be the size of a car.

Still, the costs of launching just this small satellite were a stumbling block.  The second thing that Skybox did that was clever was that rather than trying to go for launching the entire system at one time they decided to do a proof of concept model.

Last year Skybox managed to raise some capital and launch one satellite into orbit (SkySat-1).  The satellite successfully deployed and relayed back images.  Not the best of images from a satellite but images nonetheless.  This proof of concept launch was enough to encourage Google to acquire the company for $500 million.

The acquisition is a perfect fit for Google’s mapping applications.  If implemented correctly it would mean that they can update any outdated map information pretty much on demand.  Road construction closures, new subdivisions, large outdoor gatherings could all be updated when and if the Google programmers wanted them to be.  This along with the aerial drones that Google intends to deploy gives them a potentially crushing edge over Apple in the mapping arena.

In addition to their own mapping revenue there will be the private and government markets that for a long time were ruled by aircraft companies and a small number of satellite companies that mainly did government contract work.

Now mind you this is all still a fairly long way off.  The whole scheme rests on the ability of Skybox to put into orbit entire squadrons of these tiny satellites and have them working in concert to provide coverage all around the globe.  Even Google will be hard pressed to provide the capital to do this but if anyone has the money to pull this off it’s them.  Of course after that they will have to maintain the chain of satellites, replace them as needed, and of course to manage the unimaginable amount of data streaming down from the satellites.  All huge technical challenges but with rich rewards.

This will also potentially bring about changes in my life.  With a centralized source of image data flowing out to clients from a ubiquitous single source this could mean the end or at the very least a radical change in my job.  I have worked in a fairly specialized and obscure field for the last 20 years and suddenly it looks like it may become fairly accessible and commonplace.

Interesting times indeed.

Posted in: business, career, technology , Tagged: , , ,

confusion

June 2, 2014 6:21 AM , Leave a Comment ,

When I used to work at an office I would arrive quite early in the morning.  As I would arrive first in the morning I would unlock the office with my copy of the office key.  Sometimes I would try to open the office door with my house key.  Then sometimes when I was getting home I would try to unlock my door with the office key.

They look nothing alike but I caught myself doing that more than once.  I asked a friend in the mental health field what that meant.  She said it may mean that my unconscious was confusing my home life with work and that when I came into work in the mornings that I was equating work with an escape from my home life.

This worried me somewhat as it made me think of why I would be thinking of my home life as some sort of work.  I sat down and considered what I was going through at home and realized that I was challenged in some ways that I didn’t like and that I might consider my home life to be work.

I’m not one of those “live to work” types that bosses dream about.  For me work is something that I do to make a living.  I don’t really consider it a passion of mine.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t hate work and If I commit to do something I will do it as best as I can but honestly I can’t see how some people get overly excited by office work.  It’s not what I consider exciting or fun.

I find that when I don’t enjoy something I tend to equate it with work.  The really surprising thing to me is that I considered work to be an escape.  Was my home life really that bad?  In some ways it was.

I knew it was really bad when I tried to use my house key for my car.

I had to put the office back into its proper category and to return my home life to the category of being my sanctuary away from the problems of life.  That’s when I sat down and began trying to sort out my life and really see what and who was making my life miserable.  My solution was to begin cutting the problem aspects of my life from my home life and devoting my home space as an inviolable place where the troubles of everyday life would not be allowed.

I haven’t had the problem with the keys since that time.

I think that in some sense we all sometimes have confusion with regards to some parts of our lives becoming blurred and meshed together with other parts of our lives.  Sometimes our subconscious will come up with odd and unique ways to let us know that something is wrong.

Posted in: career, habits, home, thought

A rough start

March 16, 2014 7:18 AM , 2 Comments ,

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 20th anniversary out of school.  It brought back memories of that December graduation in 1993 and the events thereafter.  It also made me think how that time frame went a long way towards shaping the next 20 years of my life.

My last semester in college and you’d think I could just cruise through it on auto-pilot.  Not hardly!  If anything it was the most challenging of all my semesters.  I was taking the most advanced research and computer classes I could before graduating.  I knew that my financial situation would not be great after school even if I landed a job immediately so I wanted to be current as possible before I got out into the big bad world.  On top of that I was taking elective courses like civil engineering surveying and environmental sciences to cross train as much as possible and have a wide range of knowledge.

I wanted to be a rabid football fan but I just couldn’t spare the time that fall.  I spent as much time as possible buried in books and classes that I had to give up much of my social life too.

Besides all of that I was worried about what all college kids worry about.  Finding a job.

I was in Colorado the previous Summer at a field camp doing some geology classes.  We were all sitting around in a beer garden one night after class when I had the realization that this was it for me as far as formal school.  That final vestige of childhood was being stripped away from me and for better or worse I was going to be fully on my own.

I took advantage of the school’s placement resources when I got back to campus that Summer and all through the Fall.  I wrote up a resume as best as I could and taking all the counselor’s advice and used the school’s print center to run off as many copies as I could.  Among other disadvantages, I would be without a computer or a printer.  I wouldn’t have a personal computer again till 1995.

So we skip ahead to finals week.  I had my classes well in hand and I was boxing up my apartment.  My lease was also ending so I had to be packed and ready to leave.  I had applied to get a refund for my utility and rent deposits.  The resumes I had sent out so far had yielded no results yet.

The registrar verified I had no outstanding loans or library books and cleared me to graduate.  I stepped out of the office and sneezed.  That was a sign of things to come.

I made my goodbyes to my friends.  I was much more socially awkward back then and really didn’t know how to handle such things.  In particular I bid goodbye to one young lady I really liked.  She still had a year to go in school.  We promised we’d write and we did for a while but I think we both knew we’d never see each other ever again.

The night before graduation and I’m deep into packing up.  I’ve got a raging headache, it’s unusually cold for early December.  I’m feeling even more miserable.

My parents show up.  They want to take me to dinner but I beg off and go to bed.  The next morning I can barely get out of bed.  My sinuses are pounding and graduation is an hour off.  My parents and other family members are waiting for me.  I take some cold medicine to keep me going an somehow I stagger to the graduation.  I’m dizzy, nauseous, coughing, and miserable.

Michel Halbouty, a legend in the Texas oil industry, hands me my diploma and shakes my hand.  I barely notice him.  It’s all I can do to keep from falling over.

After graduation my parents realize just how sick I am.  They pack up the rest of my stuff and drive me back to Houston.  I spend the next 2 weeks in bed with the flu from hell.

So I started my adult life after college in a sick-bed with a couple hundred bucks from deposit refunds, a car that was on its last legs, no girlfriend, and no job.

It would in fact take me six months to land my first job.  I had several false starts with recruiting agencies and want ads in the paper but I finally landed the job I would have for the next 8 years.  I got the job by walking in and asking for it.  And it wasn’t due to my degree or my work experience but by trading on my “computer expertise” and working for a small consulting company whose execs knew even less than I did about computers.

I started at 6 dollars an hour and felt like the biggest failure ever.  This is what I went to college for?  Over time of course that improved and my job skills would expand and my responsibilities would make me a more valued asset at the company but it was difficult to see the upside back then.

Posted in: career, decisions, future, illness, jobs, life in general, school